


Where's my ghost in the mirror?

by elliot_cant_write



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: BAU but they fight ghosts, F/F, Ghosts, Psychics, all kinds of fun things, emily prentiss is the cool goth kid I always wanted to be, going to get a bit dark and creepy but we're not there yet, nobody wants this but me and im so excited, this is literally just a YA paranormal novel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-23 00:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16608335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliot_cant_write/pseuds/elliot_cant_write
Summary: "Emily Prentiss was at that part in a teenaged girl's life where her primary interest was the occult."AKAFor some reason, a bunch of teenagers are going around fighting ghosts. Emily wants in. Shit happens.





	Where's my ghost in the mirror?

Emily, much to her mother’s dismay, was at that part of a teenage girl’s life where her primary interest was, well, the occult. It had been a seemingly abrupt transition - moving from magic and Harry Potter to dressing in all black and trying to summon demons - but her mother supposed she should have seen it coming. The interest in classic literature was innocent enough, but when her works of choice generally tended to be by Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others from that general...area, Ms. Prentiss should have known that her daughter was up to something. But she just wasn’t from that world. To be honest, she wasn’t even sure she had ever read anything by Stevenson, Poe, or Shelley, and certainly not since high school. Maybe public school for her daughter had been a bad idea after all.

But again, how could she have expected that the simple act of reading some basic literature and attending school among the general population of Northern Virginia would lead to her waking up one day to find her pretty young daughter with skull necklaces, black nail polish, and frankly an excessive amount of eyeliner. Not to even get into the music. Ms. Prentiss had fairly simple tastes, and at no point did screaming or swearing play a role in them, thank you very much. 

Point is, Ms. Prentiss just about nearly fainted when Emily walked in with the Ouija board. Not that Emily seemed to take note of this. 

“Mom, can you drive me to the library tomorrow?” She asked casually, as if she did not have...that tucked under her arm. “One of my books came in.”

Ms. Prentiss nodded silently, trying not to make eye contact with either her daughter or the board. After this she was going to have to watch so much HGTV to decompress.

Emily, unconcerned by any of this, bounded up the stairs to her newly-painted, black-walled room. 

˙§.

Ms. Prentiss, much to her daughter’s dismay, was at that part of a mother’s life where she decided that she was horrified by her child’s life choices, but couldn’t be bothered to say anything, thus leaving the aforementioned child awkwardly pretending that she didn’t notice. 

But it was fine. Emily was perfectly okay with locking herself in her room all day. She had experiments to conduct.

Okay, so her actions may not have been the most scientific in nature, but she felt that the way that she was going about them allowed her to call it an experiment. She started with a question, written in sharpie-cursive on the front of a composition book. ‘Can it be proven that ghosts are real?’ Then, the research.

She started out with the basics. Intelligent haunts versus residual, poltergeists, etc. That was certainly interesting. Personally, Emily found the idea of an intelligent haunt most intriguing, certainly more so than a residual haunt. The idea of a not-quite-there dead person living out their most traumatic moment was depressing, not to mention creepy. She’d rather have an almost-all-the-way-there dead person that she could talk to. 

And then poltergeists...she had mixed feelings. On one hand, it sounded amusing. On the other, it also sounded like a nightmare. She also had mixed feelings on whether she thought poltergeists were actual things or not. If they appeared due to preteen girls who lacked healthy emotional outlets, then it seemed that one should have taken up residence at the Prentiss household at least once. Yeah, Emily believed in ghosts and all that, but not things that didn’t make sense. 

Then, it was onto how to actually find ghosts. Fun fact for those who had never researched it, ghost hunting equipment is expensive as all shit. A Mel Meter was almost a hundred dollars and she didn’t even know what that was for. 

So, ghost hunting on a budget. 

She immediately hit up the public library, placing requests on five different books about the paranormal. It was times like that that Emily was truly thankful that she had her own library card, because her mother would undoubtedly be trying to unrequest the books otherwise. Of course she would be discouraging learning the one time Emily was interested in something.

Further to her advantage, Ms. Prentiss was unexpectedly called into work, so Emily didn’t even have to hide the covers of her books when she picked them up. Hired drivers tended to ask considerably fewer questions than overly concerned parents. 

“Is that all?” The driver, Johnson, looked back as Emily swung into the back of the car with her armful of books. 

“Yes!” Emily said cheerfully, already flipping through the first of her books. 

Page 14 was what caught her interest first. There was a poorly illustrated mirror with an equally poorly illustrated person in it, below where “SUMMONING A GHOST IN A MIRROR” was written in large letters. Okay. That was doable. Their new house had like six bathrooms, each of which had at least one mirror. Three of them even had two. 

(The unspoken benefit of a large house was that if Emily accidentally summoned a demon or something, at least it didn’t have to be on the same side of the house that she slept on.)

Emily continued reading.

˙§.

SUMMONING A GHOST IN THE MIRROR  
Using a mirror to reach a ghost is often thought to be a party-game of sorts, but it can also be used by the more serious hunter to reach real paranormal results. It can be used to summon a specific ghost (popular examples being Bloody Mary, Baby Blue, and Lady Spades), or, for those with less specific targets, uttering the phrase ‘any ghost’ should bring forth whatever spirit is hovering nearest to the mirror.   
Regardless of whom you may wish to summon, the first step is to find an empty bathroom, turn the lights out, and close the door. An important thing to remember is to take this task exceptionally seriously. It is not a game; it is a supernatural ritual. One must make sure that their mind is clear before undertaking the task. Now onto the more specifics.

Bloody Mary: The exact identity of Bloody Mary is a topic of a decent amount of dispute. To some, she is a witch who was hanged during the 1692 Salem witch trials. There were two women named Mary hanged during that time, Mary Eastey and Mary Parker. Eastey had eleven children, while Parker had multiple children, one of whom was also accused of witchcraft during the trial. To others, Bloody Mary is the English queen Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. She was nicknamed Bloody Mary by protestant due to her execution-filled attempt at reversing the Catholic Reformation. She had over 280 burned at the stake. Eventually, she died (potentially due to stomach cancer, potentially due to an influenza epidemic) and was succeeded by her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I.   
To summon Bloody Mary, you need a candle. Before entering the bathroom, spin around three times and light the candle. Once you enter the bathroom, close the door and place a finder on the mirror. Look directly into the mirror and as you do so, say ‘Bloody Mary’ five times. Do not look away from the mirror. If nothing happens then, say ‘I stole your baby’. If Bloody Mary is to be Mary Tudor, this is in reference to her inability to have children and her phantom pregnancies. At this point, Bloody Mary should show up in your mirror. Now that she has, she will never leave, and will follow you from mirror to mirror. 

Baby Blue: There are many versions of Baby Blue floating around. Here, we will be going with the simplest one. Go into a bathroom (one with a mirror and a toilet) and lock the door behind you. Hold your arms as if you are holding a baby, and stare into the mirror while repeating the phrase ‘Baby Blue, Baby Blue’ thirteen times. Some variants say to say ‘Baby Blue’ or ‘Blue Baby’, but the important part is that it is said thirteen times. As you do that, you should begin to feel a weight in your arms. It will steadily get heavier and heavier, and you may feel scratching on your arms. This is the presence of Baby Blue. Before it gets too heavy, you must flush it down the toilet and quickly exit the bathroom. If you do not do these two steps quickly enough, the baby’s mother will burst through the mirror and kill you for stealing her baby. If one is able to conduct this ritual successfully, they may receive good luck.   
Some believe that Baby Blue’s mother is Bloody Mary, and that she slit his throat with a mirror, while others believe that he is the son of a woman whose lover left her before the child was born. The baby, while beautiful, compelling, and loved by all others, was hated by his mother as he reminded her of the man who had abandoned her. She ignored the baby and when he tried to get her attention and caused her to mess up her lipstick, she became enraged and threw a perfume bottle at him. She then slit the baby’s throat with part of the broken bottle. She then realised what she had done and killed herself in response. 

Lady Spades: Lady Spades is the only one discussed here who has an actual benefit asides from just seeing a ghost. If you are successful, you get a wish. To begin, you need a candle, a tube of red lipstick, and the Queen of Spades from a deck of cards. At midnight, enter a dark quiet room in which resides a mirror. Light the candle before the mirror. Then, use the lipstick to write the name “Lady Spades” across the mirror. Then hold up the card in front of it. Close your eyes, relax, and then say the phrase “Lady Spades, appear” seven times. Remain calm if you hear odd noises. This is to be expected. Open your eyes.  
If your candle has gone out, the card is facing towards you or missing, or you see a woman in the mirror staring back at you with her hand pressed against it, do not continue. If the candle has burnt out, relight it, say “Lady Spades, disappear”, wipe away the lipstick, and then burn the card. If the card is facing towards you, do the same but rip the card immediately. Be sure to burn all of the pieces. If the card is missing, break the mirror and then try to find the card in the room. If you find it, burn it. If you cannot, then leave. If the woman in the mirror has her hand pressed up against it, break the mirror. Leave and burn the card.   
If there is a woman in the mirror with her hands at her side, you have been successful. Now, you may state your wish. Try to come up with one before you begin, as not to make her wait. Now, DO NOT BREAK EYE CONTACT. If you do break eye contact, break the mirror, leave immediately, and burn the card. If Lady Spades decides to grant your wish, she will smile and say “yes”. If she decides not to grant your wish, break the mirror, blow out the candle, burn the card, and hope that she isn’t too upset with you. If she agrees, the ritual is over and you can close it by saying “Lady Spades, disappear”. Then wipe away her name, blow out the candle, and burn the card as quickly as you can. Your wish should soon come true. Remember, however, just because she agreed to grant your wish doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll leave.

Remember, you do not need to have a specific ghost in mind when summoning. If you do not specify and just use the simplistic version of the ritual, whatever spirit is closest by will answer. Follow the basic instructions, and repeat the phrase “any ghost” at least seven times. As long as you don’t accidentally summon anything sinister, the ritual can easily be ended just by turning on the lights. 

˙§.

Emily sat at the dinner table, poking at her chicken something-or-the-other-potentially-French with her fork. “I think I might want to be a vegetarian.” 

Ms. Prentiss made the face that she always made when Emily said something vaguely problematic in front of a guest that she couldn’t get angry around. The one where her lips disappeared and her eyebrows almost did too. “That’s nice, dear.”

The guest in question, diplomat of something-or-the-other-potentially-French, didn’t seem that upset about it. Emily vaguely wondered if he and her mother were sleeping together. That would explain a lot. Like, for example, why he smiled at Emily and said, “Miss. Prentiss, are you looking forward to starting at Madison tomorrow?” 

“Not in particularly.” Emily stabbed her chicken. “Woodbridge VA is a boring town, and Madison High School seems like the most boring school in the whole place. I fail to understand why we couldn’t live in DC.”

“Emily,” Her mother began.

“What? You work there. Traffic here is disgusting. Not to mention that there isn’t even a Metro station around here.”

Emily thought that that was a set of perfectly reasonable concerns, but clearly her mother disagreed. “Emily, please.” And with that, she returned her focus to her diplomat buddy-friend-pal, now engaged in a discussion about some politician whose wife left him after he got caught by his security team having an affair with his secretary. Just your average boring adult stuff.

Emily let her mind wander to her research from earlier. As pro-creepy shit as she was, she really had no interest in summoning a demon into her brand new house. Not to mention, her mother would kill her, which would suck. Although it would be a pretty fun political scandal. 

Anyway, if she didn’t want any chance of demons, that ruled out basically everything except the ‘any ghost’ thing. Of course, the one that sounded the most unrealistic, except for maybe Bloody Mary. Every third girl at her private school in London had played that game and nothing interesting had ever happened, so Emily felt that she could fairly write that one out. 

The next question, of course, was which mirror in which to try to conduct her...seance? Was this a seance? Whatever. There were two bathrooms in the main part of the downstairs, but both of them were used fairly often. Then there was the downstairs room that the woman who was supposed to stay with Emily when her mother disappeared off on work for large amounts of time was to live in, which had its own connecting bathroom. That being said, summoning a demon in that poor, unsuspecting woman’s bedroom seemed mean. And of course Emily wasn’t going to summon anything into her bathroom or her mother’s bathroom, so that left the upstairs guest bathroom. Nobody was using it, it had a decently sized mirror, and it was not on the same end of the house that Emily slept. 

“Emily, dear, if you’re done with your meal, would you like to be excused?” Ms. Prentiss asked, using her tone that said she wanted to discuss something with their guest in private and using her facial expression that said that Emily needed to stop stabbing her chicken-whatever over and over again with her fork. “I know you still need to get your school supplies ready for tomorrow.”

“Sure.” Emily pushed her chair back, and give the diplomat a tiny wave. “Goodnight, sir.”

She quickly went upstairs and to her new room. Over the years, Emily had become quite skilled in quickly moving into places. She kept all her band posters in one box, all her books in another, and could get everything into place within the first three days or so. So where she was currently, almost a whole week since they had moved in, Emily was well established. 

Since it was the middle of the school year, she was able to get her full supply list, which Johnson had driven her around for multiple hours to purchase. Johnson, whose daughter was a senior at one of the other county high school, had mentioned that since she was on block schedule, it was best to have two different backpacks and keep each day’s stuff separate. So, okay. Emily put a CD into her stereo and got to work.

˙§.

Emily’s mother had said that she was going to drive her to school for her first day. 

Emily had said this was ridiculous, because she had had countless first days and there was no reason that she couldn’t take the bus. 

Emily’s mother had said that this was her first day at a public school and that there was no way she was taking the bus. 

Emily’s mother was an adult, and thus she won.

Surprisingly, she even actually went through with it. Both of them got up at six a.m., both of them climbed into the car at 6:45, and both of them got to sit in traffic for half an hour. Welcome to Northern Virginia, apparently. Everyone drives like an asshole.

Ms. Prentiss glanced at her daughter, who was slumped in her seat with headphones in. “Are you looking forward to your classes?” She asked, raising her voice slightly.

Emily slumped further. “Not really.”

“I’m hoping you join some clubs. Decide to get involved. It would be good for you.”

“Sure.”

“Emily.”

“Hmm?”

“Have you listened to a word I’ve said?”

Emily straightened up, pulling on earbud out and twirling it around her finger. “Am I looking forward to my classes; will I join any clubs; involvement is good. Did I miss anything?”

Emily could tell her mother wanted to get mad, but instead she just sighed. “I read that the school has a book club.”

“Mother. I’d rather die.”

“But you love reading!”

Emily rolled her eyes. “But I don’t like being told what to read. Or being told what to think about what I read. I want to be permitted to be pro-Victor Frankenstein and anti-The Creature.”

And that was the end of that conversation. The two of them sat in silence until Ms. Prentiss pulled into a parking spot in the Madison High parking lot. “Do you want me to walk you into the office?” Ms. Prentiss asked, when Emily didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get out of the car. “I can help you get signed in.”

“No, I’m fine.” Emily picked up her bag from the floor and climbed out of the car. “Bye.”

“Don’t forget that you need to talk to the counsellor to review your schedule.” Ms. Prentiss said quickly. Emily just waved before shutting the door behind her. 

The hallways were bustling with students, but Emily avoided all of that to slip into the office. Walking through that door was like walking into another dimension, one with no noise save the clicking of keyboards and the odd person picking up a phone. 

“Can I help you?” A blonde woman stared at her over a pair of glasses. “Absent notes go in the upstairs office.”

“Um,” Emily shifted her backpack on her shoulder. “I’m actually a new student? I’m supposed to be getting my schedule.”

Blonde woman sighed. “Ms. Prentiss?”

“The one and only.” Emily said emotionlessly. 

“First door on the left.” She pointed over her shoulder at a hallway leading back from the office. “Counsellor should be in; just knock.”

“Okay.” Emily searched out the door and knocked twice.

“Come in.”

She opened the door and inside was an older man and a young women. The man gestured for her to sit. Emily sat.

“I’m here for my schedule?” She said, trying not to let uncertainty slip into her voice. Everyone in this school had been less than friendly thus far, and Emily took great care not to look bothered by that. She might in general find her mother’s superiority complex to be ridiculous, but she did feel that she needed to be above such things. She couldn’t come across as worried. 

“Yes, Emily Prentiss…” The man shuffled around a few papers. Emily accepted that she was not going to be learning his name. “I have your schedule right here.” He handed her a piece of paper which she scanned over. 

PERIOD 1: ALGEBRA II/TRIG  
PERIOD 2: PRE-AP ENGLISH 10  
PERIOD 3: PRE-AP CHEMISTRY  
PERIOD 4: RUSSIAN I  
PERIOD 5: AP WORLD HISTORY  
PERIOD 6: AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY  
PERIOD 7: GYM II

“Let me know if anything is incorrect,” The counsellor continued. “Now, this is your student guide for the day, Elle Greenaway.”

Emily subtly stared at Elle and Elle stared back, making no attempt to hide it. She was pretty, Emily decided,even though it was in a vaguely intimidating sort of way. But when Emily smiled at her, she smiled back. 

˙§.

“Your first class is Trig,” Elle said briskly, dodging between students as Emily tried to keep up. “It’s upstairs. All math and science classes are upstairs. A few language ones too. What are you taking, Russian?” Emily nodded. “That’s upstairs too. But it’s right next to the staircase so it hardly counts.”

Elle practically ran up the staircase, tossing information over her shoulder. “Lunch is after second period or third period. I’m assuming you were told we’re on a block schedule? I’ll show you where the cafeteria is when the time comes. See these posters on the wall? They’re for clubs. A few are closed by now, but you can find a list of still open ones on the school website as well as when they meet. Fall sports are already closed, but sign ups for spring should be going up by the end of next month.”

Eventually, Elle slowed down infront of what Emily presumed to be the correct classroom. “This is it. I’ll be back here afterwards to show you where English is. Any questions?”

Emily shook her head. “Thanks for showing me around.”

Elle shrugged. “Yeah, no problem. Good luck. Mr. Brunswick is a total hardass.”

Elle left, and Emily went inside. She approached the teacher, a tall man with glasses and a full beard. “Um, Mr. Brunswick? My name is Emily Prentiss, and I’m-” 

“A new student.” He cut her off. “Second desk from the right in the first row. Have your notebook out to take notes.”

Okay. Abrupt. Emily could deal with that. She found her desk and set up shop, observing the students around her.

Honestly, public school kids didn’t look that different from private school kids. Sure, they were a bit more diverse (meaning, not only rich, attractive-in a boring way white people), but the general attitude was still the same. There was a group of boys in the back corner who probably owned $80 shoes and were all listening to the same three rappers. There were the band kids, all of whom were sitting together and even though summer was months past, kept starting sentences with ‘one time at band camp…’. At least three people were asleep, and at least four were watching The Office. Everyone was on their phone. 

Emily grinned. She could definitely deal with this.

˙§.

Emily’s first day went about as first days go. Without Elle, she probably would have gotten lost about four times, but with Elle, she only got lost on the way to the bathroom once during Russian, which was her own fault for thinking she’d be fine without a map. Also, on her way out of Russian she nearly got run over by some freshman running to catch up with his two friends, but it was fine. Her mother would be furious that she wasn’t miserable the entire time. Or, she would have been, at least, if she was home from work.

Emily decided to take the opportunity of only having a semi-unreasonable amount of homework to look at the list of clubs Elle had talked about. Her mother had been quite serious about her becoming involved, and it was within her best interests to find something before she took it into her own hands. That was how people who were not academically inclined ended up on academic team. 

Emily pulled out her laptop and typed ‘Madison High School Woodbridge’ into the search bar. She found the website, and went to the clubs section, quickly scrolling through the lists. Art club, book club, something called EDGE club, robotics club, German club. Oh, Russian club. She could work with that, if necessary. And her mother would like it, since it would look good on college applications or whatever. National Honors Society, marching band, yearbook...paranormal book club? What the fuck?

Emily grinned, clicking on the link. Oh, this was brilliant. It was a book club, something her mother had waxed poetically about on numerous occasions, but it was on a topic that would have absolutely infuriated her. Ms. Prentiss was pissed about her interests in ghost and shit? Why not make it a school sponsored activity? 

According to the website, their next meeting was the next day, and they met every Tuesday and Thursday until four o’clock, in room 120. It also said that they were accepting members. 

Emily pulled out a purple sticky-note and scribbled a note to her mother, saying she would be home late the next day. If her mother had an issue, she could track her down the next morning, as Emily planned to be locked in her room and pretending to be asleep by the time she got home. 

She quickly went downstairs and stuck the sticky note on the door to her mother’s office, and then grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before heading back to her room to watch TV.

˙§.

Emily woke up abruptly, loud music blasting from her alarm. She blinked, flipping her hair out of her face to where it undoubtedly continued to stand straight up. It was still dark out. That was gross.

She sat up, detangling herself from her headphones that she had fallen asleep without taking out the night before. Music still trailed softly from them as she got out of bed, adjusting the band t-shirt that was half sliding off of her shoulder. 

Emily quickly got dressed, made her hair stick up in the opposite direction, and smeared some (a lot) of eyeliner around her eyes. She glanced at the clock, and, seeing that she still had about ten minutes, ran down to grab a muffin for breakfast. Chocolate chip. Because she wasn’t a boring adult who ate blueberry. 

“Hi Johnson.” Emily swung the door shut before her, narrowly avoiding slamming one of her combat boots in it. “Did anything exciting happen to you yesterday?”

“Without you to drive around? How could anything?” Johnson said dryly, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. “I trust you are not dropping muffin crumbs on my seats?”

“Of course not,” Emily lied, brushing muffin crumbs off of his seats. “I need you to pick me up at four today.”

“Now, should I really do a favour for a young woman lying to me about crumbs? What do you think Emily?”

Emily pretended to think about it. “I think the young woman would probably just be lying to you so that you didn’t worry about your seats while you were driving. That could be dangerous, you know. So you should probably do her a favour.”

“I see.” Johnson stopped at a red light and turned around to face Emily. “Is your mother aware that you’re being picked up two hours late?”

Emily shrugged. “I haven’t seen her. I left a note though.”

“You left a note.” Johnson repeated as the light turned green again and traffic began to move. He was silent for the rest of the drive, as Emily began to fidget. As they pulled into the parking lot, he finally answered. “I’ll see you at four.”

Emily beamed. “Thanks Johnson!” She left the car and hurried across the parking lot to where Elle had promised to wait for her. Sure enough, the other girl was leaning against the wall outside the library door, loudly chewed bubble-gum.

“Hey.” Elle waved, thrusting a few pieces of paper in Emily’s direction. “I got your locker combo, and some paperwork you’ll have to fill out. I wouldn’t bother that much with the locker stuff, though. I don’t know a single person who uses theirs. Hell, I think I lost my paper on the first day of school, long before I even found out where my locker is. Regardless, it’s your choice. Your first period is Trig again; do you remember where that it?”

“Upstairs, first hallway.”

Elle nodded. “Great. I need to go talk to a teacher, so I’ll see you at the end of the period before chem.” She waved and then took off down the hallway, hair swishing as she moved.

Emily glanced at the paper about her locked before shoving it in her bag. She probably wasn’t going to use it anyway. 

Emily made it through Trig, before meeting back up with Elle to go to Chemistry.

“We both have the same lunch period.” Elle observed, reading Emily’s schedule. “I normally sit in the library; there’s this table in the back corner behind the foreign language section. If you want, feel free to come hang out.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you then.” Emily said, already glancing into the room to see the teacher writing names upon the board. For a lab, she assumed. 

“Are you Emily?” Someone asked from behind her.

“Fuck!” Emily spun around. “Uh, I mean, yes. Hi?” She tilted her head back, trying to make eye contact with the much taller student behind her.

He blinked, seeming slightly confused by her. Which was fair, she supposed, “I’m Aaron. Ms. Bow said we’re to be lab partners so that I can help you get caught up.”

Emily nodded, shifting her backpack off of her shoulder and onto one of the lab tables. Aaron glanced at the skull across the front of it, immediately then trying to make eye contact with her face only and not her hair nor the skull. Also fair. Aaron seemed remarkably boring.

He handed her the lab sheet, launching off into some tangant about reactions and colours and indicators. Emily was perfectly decent in Chemistry - or at least she had been at her old school - but unfortunately in this case, being decent did not result in any interest in the subject. Tying her hair back and pulling on a pair of lab goggles, she resigned herself to a boring period of doing a boring chemistry lab with boring Aaron.

Really though, he wasn’t that bad. Once, he made a dumb joke about acid and then almost laughed when Emily mimed drinking it in response. She could work with that, at least for the remaining hour.

“Did you move here or just transfer schools?” He eventually asked, pouring a tube of something clear into the indicator, which immediately turned a dark pink. 

“All of the above.” Emily marked the result on their lab sheet. “I moved here from London, but I also transferred schools. Today is actually my second day ever in public school.”

Aaron just about dropped the tube he was holding. “You were in private school in London before this?”

“Yes, asshole,” Emily said, secretly quite pleased by his reaction. “What, have you been living in Woodbridge, Virginia your whole life?”

“Technically, I live just out of Manassas, but yes.” Aaron made a weird face where his forehead wrinkled up a lot. Emily found it vaguely amusing. “And do you really need to swear in 75% of sentences?”

“Yes.” Emily drew some little ghosts on their paper. “I really do need to. But if it makes you feel better, I can refrain from making a comment about Manassas.”

Emily could recognize the exact moment Aaron got what she meant. He rolled his eyes, and carried on with the experiment. 

˙§.

At the end of the class, the teacher - Ms. Bow, she introduced herself as- called Emily and Aaron to the front of the room. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Emily.” Ms. Bow said, shaking her hand. “Aaron here is one of our best students, so for the time being the two of you will be paired together in class. I’ve seen your transcripts from your old school and know that you have experience in chemistry, so I’m sure with Aaron’s help you’ll be able to get caught up quickly.”

Emily nodded, glancing over at Aaron and smirking slightly at the 100% serious expression on her face. 

“See you next class, Manassas-Aaron!” She said cheerfully, leaving to go find Elle in the library.

The table Elle had indicated was empty when Emily arrived, so she sat down and flipped through one of her books, ignoring the students filing in to the rest of the room. 

“Hey,” Elle breezed in, slouching into one of the chairs across from Emily. “What are you reading? English stuff?”

“Uh, no,” Emily held up the cover of her book so that Elle could see. “Unless your English teachers are assigning books on ghosts in Northern Virginia.”

Elle did not smile like Emily expected her to, her mouth instead immediately becoming downcast and her forehead wrinkled up in a way that reminded her weirdly of Aaron earlier. “Please tell me you aren’t planning on joining that paranormal book club.”

“Um, that’s not the reaction I had been expecting.” Emily said, giving Elle a weird look. “What’s the matter with the paranormal book club?”

“There a bunch of assholes.” Elle said bitterly. “I used to be in it, until they kicked me out. Trust me, that’s not a group you want to be involved with. I’d say I’m surprised they’ve never been forced to disband, but the president has one of the English teacher’s wrapped around his finger. None of the shit they get up to is ever going to get out while they’ve got that protection.” 

“Oh.” Emily tried to look like she was actually considering taking Elle’s advice, even though this just made her more curious. What on Earth could a book club be doing that was grounds for forced disbandment? Besides, Elle seemed like she was hiding something. Emily wasn’t sure how she could tell, but there was something in the way Elle was uncomfortably holding herself that betrayed her untruthfulness. “Guess there goes my plans for after school.”

“They’re are regular book clubs too if you’re really attached to reading.” Elle said after a few seconds of silence. She then tried to change the subject. “So how was chem?”

˙§.

Blatantly choosing to ignore everything Elle had said to her during lunch, Emily sought out room 120, the meeting place of the - apparently evil - paranormal book club. 

It was in the dark corner of the school behind the library, the one that Elle had said she’d probably never have to go to because all that was back there were the construction classes and the Model UN room. And, apparently, a tiny cramped room that had lots of bookshelves and what looked like it might have been a unicorn bean bag. That...that was a surprise.

“What are you doing here?” An older student - he had to be older; his beard was too impressive for a sophomore - quickly stood up from where he and two others had been sitting. “We have the room reserved for every Tuesday.”

Emily forced her face to make some sort of expression that hopefully seemed confident. “Hi! Are you the paranormal book club?”

“What the fuck is the paranormal-” 

One of the two other students - Emily thought he was probably around her age - coughed loudly, cutting off beard-man. 

Beard-man’s eyes widened slightly, but he threw off his confusion so quickly that it might as well never have been there. “Yes. Do you need something?”

Confident expression. You can do this, Prentiss. “I was hoping that I could maybe join? I really like reading. And ghost stories.”

He kind of just stared at her for a few seconds, before his eyes flickered to something behind her and his entire body relaxed. “Oh thank God. Hotch, you can deal with this.”

Emily turned around, surprised to see her lab partner walking in along with a ridiculiusly gourgous blonde, along with a younger kid that Emily vaguely recognized. “Aaron? What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” He echoed her own question, clearly not intending to provide his own answer. 

Emily crossed her arms over her chest, starting to get annoyed. Why did all of them seem completely baffled by the idea of others wanting to be in their book club? “I want to join your club. I’m assuming you’re here because it’s your club, anyway?”

Aaron crossed his arms back. “We’re not taking new members.”

Emily blinked. Okay. Irrationally, she immediately felt her entire mood drop. She had been doing this for her mother, so why was she so disappointed that it wasn’t going to work? There were surely other hobbies that would disappoint her mother but not be anything she could technically complain about. She blinked again. Really. This wasn’t that big of a deal. Being upset is unnecessary. She was fine. This was fine. Everything was fine.

Emily blinked again. Okay. She inhaled deeply, and intended to then exhale. She really did. What came out was an accident. “Why not?” She asked, her internal censor screaming at her to please shut up. “I thought your page on the school website said that you’re accepting members.”

“Well, we’re not.” The older student responded. “That was a mistake.” 

Emily turned back to look at Aaron, who shook his head. “Sorry, Emily.”

“Aaron! But we did acid together!”

Somebody else laughed, and Aaron just closed his eyes for a few seconds. “We’ve got to get started. I’ll see you in chemistry, okay.”

“Whatever.” Emily muttered, leaving. She did not let the door slam behind her. She had more dignity than that.

Elle was right though. They really were dicks.

˙§.

Emily walked into her house, shoulders slumped. She had had to wait two fucking hours for Johnson to get there, since apparently his life doesn't revolve around her schedule so he could not pick her up at the drop of a pin. And it had rained, and she was pretty sure that her eyeliner had run all the way down her cheeks. It made her look like she had been crying, which she hated, because even though she had really really wanted to, she’d managed to keep all her feelings inside. 

She went upstairs to her room and fell face first onto her bed. “FUCK!”

Screaming made her feel a little bit better. She lifted her head up slightly, most of her face still covered by her pillow. Something caught her eye, and she sat up all the way.

It was the book that she had gotten out of the library a few days before. Emily felt like shit, and she wanted to do something dumb. This seemed like a good choice. 

She reached over and grabbed the book, flipping to the passage she had read earlier. Summoning in mirrors. 

Emily took the book and began to walk down to the bathroom on the other side of the house. The one that had seemed like a good idea. Halfway there, she abruptly changed directions. Her mother had been the reason she went after this stupid club thing to begin with. 

She stepped into her mother’s bathroom, not bothering to turn the lights on and closing the door behind her. Emily took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, trying to ignore the way that the washed-away eyeliner made her look tired, and sad, and young. She took one more breath, before beginning.

“Any ghost. Any ghost. Any ghost. Any ghost. Any ghost…”

One of the drawers shot out from her mother’s sink, falling and hitting the floor in front of her. It took all of Emily’s self control not to scream. But she kept going.

“Any ghost. Any ghost.”

A grey figure began to appear in the mirror. It’s didn’t have a face, but it looked small and young. What looked like a cap was on its head, and there was what looked like a line of buttons going up its front.

Emily grinned. She was fine. This was fine. Everything was fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to my mess. This was supposed to be done in August. Then by Halloween. Then by last weekend. And it was supposed to be twice as long as this. It's a lot.  
> Some notes:  
> 1\. I really wanted Elle to be here! Just because i think her and Emily interacting is really fun. And also because when I started this I was rewatching season one and wow I love her.  
> 2\. I decided that I want them to live in Woodbridge, because in the show it annoys me that they work at Quantico but live in DC. That makes absolutely no sense. Do you know how much it sucks to commute from DC to there?? At least Woodbridge is close. (It also bothers me that Reid is implied to take the metro from DC to work and?? You literally can't do that?? Metro doesn't go out that far. And besides, Metro is gross). Anyway, Woodbridge.   
> 3\. This is vaguley based on all the bad paranormal YA novels I read in middle school, but most of all, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, which is actually so much fun.  
> 4\. Yes, I have tried to summon a ghost in my mother's bathroom mirror. I was a dumb fifth grader. Nothing happened except that one of the drawers fell out, which was odd because it had never happened before and has never happened since, but nothing inherently paranormal. Of course, I did have the unfortunate realisation while writing this that my house wasn't haunted before then.  
> 6\. I got a bit carried away while writing the book part. Here are my sources:  
> https://www.bustle.com/articles/180548-12-creepy-mirror-games-to-play-when-you-just-want-to-freak-yourself-out  
> http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2017/05/12/how-to-summon-an-otherworldly-entity-with-your-bathroom-mirror/  
> https://aminoapps.com/c/conspiracytheory/page/blog/lady-spades-ritual/L2lm_nLXU8uMej3WDWWQVgVEexNEVgowJY0  
> http://the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/types-of-hauntings/  
> https://www.ghoststop.com/default.asp  
> http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb42  
> https://theghostinmymachine.com/2017/11/29/dangerous-games-blue-baby-baby-blue/  
> http://www.scaryforkids.com/baby-blue/  
> 7\. Thank you so much for reading! Don't know when the next chapter will be up because school is a lot and we're moving into a busy time for choir, but I hope to have it done by the new year.   
> 8\. Tumblr is @penguinsarebetterthanpeople if you want to be friends!


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